Hattiesburg's attractions are low-key and genuinely local. The Hattiesburg Zoo in Kamper Park is free to enter — a rarity in American zoos. The Tiger Drive-In on Highway 49 is the only operating drive-in theater in Mississippi, running double features on Friday and Saturday nights.
The Civil Rights history is substantial and honestly presented. The African American Military History Museum on Mobile Street occupies the former segregated USO club, and Smith Drug Co. documents the local voter registration campaigns of the 1960s. The World Trade Center Memorial on Main Street is easy to miss but worth pausing at.
The University of Southern Mississippi runs a lively arts and performance calendar through the academic year, and the downtown creative district has the Hattiesburg Pocket Museum — a rotating exhibition in a street-level window, always free.